[farjo08]

Today we had some snow and I lost signal on all my receivers (HR20, HR10-250 and SAT-T60). I cleaned the dish / LNB(s) and the HR10-250 and SAT-T60 work fine. But after several resets of the HR20 I still get Searching For Satellite on Tuner 1 and onyl get about a dozen channels. All my guide data is blank (doesn't it store this information) and all of my to do's are deleted.

As the other receivers are working fine, why would the HR20 not be able to acquire a signal? Checking signal strengh most show between 85 - 95 so it's getting the signal so I have no idea what the problem is.

A call to DTV will happen shortly but wanted to check to see if anyone here had any ideas as well.

EDIT: I removed the B Band Convertors and it started working instantly - so an additional question, what is the exact purpose of the B-Band Convertors and do I really need them (i.e. will I run into any problems without them)? In this case, it seemed to fix the problem I was having but since they do install them I figured there must be a reason.

 

[iceman2a]

Today we had some snow and I lost signal on all my receivers (HR20, HR10-250 and SAT-T60). I cleaned the dish / LNB(s) and the HR10-250 and SAT-T60 work fine. But after several resets of the HR20 I still get Searching For Satellite on Tuner 1 and onyl get about a dozen channels. All my guide data is blank (doesn't it store this information) and all of my to do's are deleted.

As the other receivers are working fine, why would the HR20 not be able to acquire a signal? Checking signal strengh most show between 85 - 95 so it's getting the signal so I have no idea what the problem is.

A call to DTV will happen shortly but wanted to check to see if anyone here had any ideas as well.

1st try removing B-Band Converters and connect coax directly to HR20!
If that doesn't work, try swapping SAT1-IN with SAT2-IN.
Report back your results!

 

[farjo08]

I actually did remove them and then updated my original post before I saw your response - that did work but the question is why? Or more specifically what exactly do the B-Band Convertors do and are there any issues / limitations with removing them? That did immediately resolve the problem - just don't understand the technical nature / purpose of those convertors.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[matto]

call d* and have them send out replacement broadband converters.

 

[farjo08]

As a test, I put them back on, rebooted and same problem - it only populates about a dozen or so channels. I remove them, reboot and it works fine.

However once it is working (without the convertors) and I unplug the inputs to the receiver then add them back it still works fine. So currently I have the B-Band convertors connected and it is working, but I had to reboot the receiver without them to get the channels to populate.

Doing it the other way, rebooting with the B-Band convertors, than removing them, doesn't seem to work as if i try to manually tune to a channel that is not in the guide data it tells me the channel is not available.

It still may be weather related, although odd that it works fine without them, only because I had the box for 2 weeks (to the day) and never had an issue like this before and had done a few resets during that time period.

For what it's worth, I'm located in Denver, just in case anyone else in the area has the same issue... or not.

 

[LameLefty]

call d* and have them send out replacement broadband converters.

They're not "broadband converters," they are "B Band Converters." They are there for future HD content, which will be on a different part of the Ku band (the "B Band" originally enough). Those signals will need to be converted to a different frequency band for the HR20's tuners to recognize. They have a pretty high failure rate, which is why they are separate parts and not built into the HR20 directly.

 

[iceman2a]

The "BBC's" serve no purpose at the present time, however they will be needed some time next year when D* launches new sats. Right now, they are kind of flakey, see a lot of failures with them and some partial failures. I have one that works fine with my H20 but not at all with HR20!

 

[farjo08]

Thanks for the clarification. For now everything is running fine again (I did hook them back up) - but as it would not acquire most of the satellite info with them I can see why people say they have a high failure rate. Anyway I'll keep it in mind and when they do actually use them and if I still have problems with them I will be sure to call DTV for replacements.

I'll probably test a reset over the weekend with them on to see if it works as expected. Again the weather may be causing and issue with them on - but just seems odd.

 

[Justinto]

I live in Westminster, just north of you and have had the same problem - my tuner 1 does not pick up Sat 101 or is sporadic. I removed the bbc from tuner 1 and it is better. I, however, did not reboot after I removed the bbc. I am afraid to di that because the last time I did that it would not boot until it completely cooled down after removing the plug. Then the boot and new firmware upgrade took hours.

I have another problem in that the 110 sat pixilates sporadically; mostly in the evening and on Sundays. I had Ironwood through D* come out three time they checked all of the connections, redid them, and replaced the old H10-250 twice. Since this did not work, I got D* to send me a HR20. This did not improve the situation much but it was improved. Everything was checked, but I still have the problem. I also have a H20 in the bedroom and there is no problem with that.

I think at this point, except for local stations in HD which I could not get where I live, the HR20 is inferior to the H10-250.

Frustrated

 

[farjo08]

I live in Westminster, just north of you and have had the same problem - my tuner 1 does not pick up Sat 101 or is sporadic. I removed the bbc from tuner 1 and it is better. I, however, did not reboot after I removed the bbc. I am afraid to di that because the last time I did that it would not boot until it completely cooled down after removing the plug. Then the boot and new firmware upgrade took hours.

I have another problem in that the 110 sat pixilates sporadically; mostly in the evening and on Sundays. I had Ironwood through D* come out three time they checked all of the connections, redid them, and replaced the old H10-250 twice. Since this did not work, I got D* to send me a HR20. This did not improve the situation much but it was improved. Everything was checked, but I still have the problem. I also have a H20 in the bedroom and there is no problem with that.

I think at this point, except for local stations in HD which I could not get where I live, the HR20 is inferior to the H10-250.

Frustrated

Actually I am in Westminster as well! I agree that the HR10-250 was a much better (reliable) piece of hardware than the HR20. I loved the Tivo based units - particularly the ability to hack / enhance them. To me those units were flawless and the HR20 is anything but.

I was able to get the locals from an OTA but not with 100% reliability. CBS I lost this summer and could never get back. Fox and WB are no problem at all - it's the downtown stations that were tempermental which is why I went with the HR20 but so far I am not impressed at all by the unit. Understanding it is still pretty new but considering the HR15 has been out for awhile and many of the known HR20 problems have been day 1 issues it's a huge step backwards when used to the reliability of the Tivo based units.

Now my problem is waiting for all of the guide data to repopulate and my To Do list to repopulate as well as everything I had set up has been cancelled. And if I try to re-add them (even if they are in the guide data) the unit just hands on the "Please Wait" screen. After an hour of that I decided to reboot again as it didn't seem it would ever recover. Just anohter issue I have had recently with it (the past few days have been pretty bad with it).

 

[ralphfurley]

i've been getting the "searching for signal...771" error alot lately; happens while watching HD/MPEG4 channels...restart wont work...tuning to good ol' SD channel clears it up

 

[farjo08]

i've been getting the "searching for signal...771" error alot lately; happens while watching HD/MPEG4 channels...restart wont work...tuning to good ol' SD channel clears it up

If you still have your BBCs connected try removing them. It worked for me. I hooked them back up and had to do another reset and this time it worked properly.